Since the advent of the Internet, advertising has been one of the most attempted methods of capitalizing on the ever-growing number of users surfing the web. Through placing a banner on a website or sending generic emails out to a mailing list, advertisers attempt to make their pitches to millions of users in one fell swoop. Any advertisement, regardless of content, can draw in considerable amounts of business simply through the massive amounts of exposure afforded by the Internet.
While Internet advertising is cheap and effective, corporations are constantly searching for ways to boost the return on each dollar spent. Recent times have seen the introduction of targeted advertising in an attempt to further increase the efficiency of each advertisement. By viewing a user's browsing history, personal information, and other data, an advertising entity can select advertisements that are more likely to appeal to the user. By only displaying advertisements that a user would likely find interesting, the advertising entity can greatly increase the chances that a user seeing an advertisement will actually purchase the advertised product or service.
For example, when displaying ads to a user known to be a 20-year-old male, the advertising entity can skip showing advertisements for handbags and body lotion and instead display an advertisement for the current year's iteration of a college football video game. From the information known about the user, it is more likely that the user would be interested in, and therefore buy, the video game. Thus, the advertising entity has increased the efficiency of the video game advertisement, while avoiding wasting the user's time and the advertisers' money with the other two advertisements.
Many users, seeing an encroachment on their personal privacy, balk at this form of advertising and resist the idea of a corporation having access to any personal information that they have not explicitly provided. These users would prefer that all information about them be kept secret until they decide that such information should be revealed. Further, while a user may choose to reveal some personal information, it is likely that they would never choose to reveal all of their personal information even though such a disclosure would enable advertising entities to best target their advertisements. Accordingly, there is a need for a system that may direct advertisements to users based on all available personal information, while ensuring a maximum level or privacy.
The foregoing objects and advantages of the invention are illustrative of those that can be achieved by the various exemplary embodiments and are not intended to be exhaustive or limiting of the possible advantages that can be realized. Thus, these and other objects and advantages of the various exemplary embodiments will be apparent from the description herein or can be learned from practicing the various exemplary embodiments, both as embodied herein or as modified in view of any variation that may be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the present invention resides in the novel methods, arrangements, combinations, and improvements herein shown and described in various exemplary embodiments.